I came into this graphic novel with high expectations - I had been looking forward to it since I'd been accepted for an ARC. But, sadly, it just fell flat for me. It felt as if this were aimed more at those already comfortable with Juliet's story and not newcomers.

The form of the graphic novel is clunky and stops the story getting any depth. The reader barely gets a glimpse of the thoughts of our protagonist, instead watching through a window completely unaware. This is absolutely not an attack on graphic novels, I just feel like this story did not translate well.

Importantly, the message at the centre of this book is wonderful: embrace yourself, boost minority voices and love yourself first. Personally though, I don't think these were presented in the best kind of way. Perhaps the clearest example of this was the ending: Juliet suffers from asthma and in a 'spiritual cleansing' in a river she drops her inhaler to the ground and applies essential oils instead. This seemed a dangerous note to leave the novel on and left me feeling a little uncomfortable - it just seemed almost sarcastic to me and that tainted the whole experience.

And it was just confusing. I still don't entirely understand what Juliet was doing. I don't understand why the strange relationship she had with Harlow was allowed. I don't understand the inclusion of a non-binary character to have them disappear to hug trees 5 pages later (another borderline offensive/sarcastic event that felt icky). I don't understand the way relationships worked and were presented. And I really disliked the whole stay in your lane idea; Juliet faces issues with her current (white) girlfriend and is told by fellow minority characters 'talk to me when you date someone who is black' - it felt as though Rivera was saying that interracial couples can't work.

I would definitely be interested in reading the original novel to see if that changes my opinion of the story. Unless you're a big fan of that, I wouldn't recommend picking this one up. It tries to do a lot of things and the surface level provided by a graphic novel doesn't allow the required depth.

Whilst I did dislike the way this turned out, the artwork is absolutely stunning and at its core, this is a story that has potential. I would certainly read the original story to see if the added detail would help make it clearer but I certainly wouldn't be interested in buying it.

A lot of this novel seemed to extreme and over-the-top. Rivera tried to cram in as many situations as possible and none of them seemed to be executed properly. The graphic novel form makes the characters even more inaccessible and the plot entirely incomprehensible. But the pictures are pretty!